Monday, May 6, 2013

PORTLAND, Ore.  –  Saint Martin’s earned the fifth-seed and will play fourth-seed Grand Canyon Friday in the opening round of the Arcata NCAA Division II West Regional softball tournament.

The Saints (39-14), playing in their first softball regional, will open the regional at 1:30 p.m. against the Antelopes (39-17). 

The second game will match top-seed and host Humboldt State (46-12) against eight-seed UC San Diego (33-22) at 4 p.m.

Second-seed Dixie State (37-12) will host the other half of the regional at St. George, Utah, and will play seventh-seed Hawaii Hilo (39-17) at 2:30 p.m. following a noon contest between third-seed Sonoma State (36-19) and sixth-seed Cal State Dominguez (34-21).

The Saints are just the third team in school history to earn a berth in a NCAA Division II tournament. SMU earned an automatic berth winning the GNAC tournament Saturday at Billings with a 6-1 win over  Simon Fraser.
 
The winner of each regional will advance to a best-of-three NCAA Division II West Region Super Regional on May 17  and 18. The winner of that series will advance to the Division II College World Series in Salem, Virginia on May 23-27.

The Saint softball team join men's golf and women's basketball as the only two other teams in school history to qualify for NCAA post-season play. Women's basketball did so in 2004-05 and 2007-08 while men's golf qualified as a team as recently as the 2012 season.